Lula Mena

September 20, 2019

The Weaving Hope project was born out of one of the largest energy companies (DELSUR) that needed to replace 60,000 traditional energy meters for digital ones. This replacement was creating industrial waste in El Salvador. When Lula opened an energy meter and saw the copper threads inside, she was fascinated and immediately thought that it could be used for weaving. Around this, Weaving Hope project was created with DELSUR.

First, the traditional loom was redesigned by reducing the size and adapting some parts so that they could be used by women. This helps in solving the problem that the traditional weaving technique is disappearing in El Salvador. Since Lula´s work is focused on the empowerment of women, 5 women were trained so they could weave on the traditional loom.

By purchasing any of these designs, you are helping us to empowering these women to improve their quality of life, under a framework of fair trade.

I decided to call the project this way because the waves, as they come and go, is the hope that should never end. Hope is the last thing that should be lost and it’s what gives meaning to everything we do.

This project has as main objective the economic empowerment of a group of 20 women from rural communities in the department of La Libertad, so that they can improve their quality of life, that of their children and their community. The economic empowerment of the women's community will be done through the teaching of the loom technique of 2 frames. By learning this new craft, they will have the ability to create the products that will be designed by me and marketed through my brand nationally and internationally.

The products that will be created will be representative of La Libertad and will contribute to the preservation of the traditional technique of manual weaving, thus encouraging the national identity. All of the above framed within the guidelines of fair trade.